Monday Morning Briefing

North Korea’s nuclear threat looms large this week over the U.N. General Assembly, scores have been arrested at protests in St Louis and Sean Spicer made a surprise appearance at the Emmy Awards.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un watches the launch of a Hwasong-12 missile in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on September 16, 2017. KCNA via REUTERS

North Korea

The U.S. military staged bombing drills with South Korea over the Korean peninsula and Russia and China began naval exercises ahead of a U.N. General Assembly meeting on Tuesday where North Korea’s nuclear threat is likely to loom large. The flurry of military drills came after Pyongyang fired another mid-range ballistic missile over Japan on Friday and the reclusive North conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear test on Sept. 3 in defiance of United Nations sanctions and other international pressure.

U.N.

When U.S. President Donald Trump takes the world stage at the United Nations for the first time this week, he will share the spotlight with his envoy Nikki Haley, who has emerged as the surprising public face of U.S. foreign policy. Haley, the 45-year-old former South Carolina governor, has proven to be a high-profile member of Trump’s administration, at times overshadowing Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, the former chief executive of Exxon Mobil Corp, despite her lack of previous foreign policy experience, diplomats say.

U.S.

More than 80 people were arrested on Sunday night as protests in St Louis over the acquittal of a white policeman who had shot a black man turned violent for a third night running. Police in riot gear used pepper spray and arrested the demonstrators who had defied orders to disperse following a larger, peaceful protest.

Emmy Awards

The Emmy awards show was peppered with political jokes and pointed speeches on Sunday, as host Stephen Colbert took shots at the president, Sean Spicer made a surprise appearance and Trump won an Emmy - sort of.

“The Handmaid’s Tale” and political comedy “Veep” won the top prizes, but satirical sketch show “Saturday Night Live” won the most Emmys overall on the back of a season of Trump spoofs.

Business

World stocks hit a record high and the dollar reached an eight-week peak against the yen on expectations that the U.S. Federal Reserve will this week announce trimming of its balance sheet, part of a reversal of cheap money worldwide.

Commentary

With French unionists taking to the streets in protest, President Emmanuel Macron’s changes to France's labor laws hang in the balance, writes columnist John Lloyd. "If France’s CGT and the left and far-right cannot mobilize enough opposition, the labor reforms will be implemented, and they could be part of a general renaissance of the French economy," says Lloyd. "Yet delivery of this kind of economy now comes with an apparently unavoidable cost. Faster growth and even a fall in unemployment can produce an ever-larger underclass...a much larger tail of the precarious, insecure and low paid."